


A Disaster Avoided

by tuesdaycoming



Series: The Heart of Aphrodite Week 2021 [3]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Acting Out of Character, But the Comfort comes later, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Mind Manipulation, Self-Sacrifice, Spoilers through episode 183
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:08:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29339562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesdaycoming/pseuds/tuesdaycoming
Summary: From a distance or from meters away, Azu can just make out Skraak’s voice shouting at them, at Hamid, to shake it off.“Its the Thing,” Skraak says. “I felt it. It’s got him.”
Relationships: Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan & Azu
Series: The Heart of Aphrodite Week 2021 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2151867
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23
Collections: The Heart of Aphrodite





	A Disaster Avoided

**Author's Note:**

> The Heart of Aphrodite Week- Day 3: “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” - William Shakespeare. Trust - Betrayal

When Azu slices into the terrible creature bearing down on them from above and sees it split open on her axe, victory rushes through every bit of her. She laughs as the thing sprays it’s dark ichor; she has missed this. Azu hadn’t realized how much. 

“Hamid!” Azu turns to find him still floating beside her. “I admit, I was quite frightened, but we really…” 

His cheek is covered in the inky darkness sprayed from that thing. Her armor has caught what might have touched her, but Hamid’s noble clothes are soaked in it. That is not what gives her pause. 

“What on _earth_ are you thinking, Azu?” Hamid’s voice is pitched high, but his expression is dark and dangerous. She’s never seen him like this, not really. Not at her. 

Azu swallows the lump of her triumph down and gestures toward the thing slumping out of the portal and onto the blue petaled ground. “Killing it, Hamid. You can,” she waves her hand toward his face, “prestidigitate yourself, can’t you? You’ll be good a new.” 

“Gods, I have to do everything by myself, don’t I?” Hamid continued as if he couldn’t or wouldn’t deign to hear anything she said. “I would be better off by myself.” 

There is no strong wind in the Garden of Yerlik, but Azu hears air rushing in her ears, like being caught in a sudden storm, set spinning. From a distance or from meters away, she can just make out Skraak’s voice shouting at them, at Hamid, to shake it off. 

“Its the Thing,” Skraak says. “I felt it. It’s got him.”

Hamid rolls his eyes. His hands come up in a movement close to his chest that Azu recognizes immediately. She cries out for Skraak to “Run! Run, all of you!” and steps forward into the gathering inferno in Hamid’s palms. He is still flying. She doesn’t have to bend to reach out and grab him before he can move away. Azu lets her axe fall to the ground so she can get both arms around Hamid’s small frame, and when the fireball goes off it is centered on both of them. 

Azu screams. 

The pain of being burnt inside her armor is more than she previously thought she could bear. There is a moment inside of the fire when she does not think she will be able to bear it after all, but it ends. And Azu sinks to her knees as Hamid sobs in her arms. This, at least, is a familiar enough feeling. 

When the other start to approach, Azu cries out from her ragged throat for them to wait. They don’t know if he’s himself again. 

“I’m so sorry, Azu.” And that is enough.

Hamid’s lips are black. Azu pours healing into him and watches the burnt skin flake away while he begs her forgiveness. “You’re alright. No one else is hurt.” She tells him. 

“ _You’re_ hurt. I—” Hamid cuts himself off with another racking cry. Zolf’s hand on Azu’s shoulder hurts until she feels the warm pulse of healing spreading out from it. 

“I’m fine.” She’s not. “It was the thing. The monster. But I have killed it.” 

Azu looks up that the little crowd gathered around them and squares her shoulders. Sumutnyerl approaches, transformed back to their humanoid appearance, no trace of the ichor on their skin. They look at Azu and Hamid with something like pity, and Azu feels a pulse of uncharitable hatred run through her. “We should keep moving.” Sumutnyerl says. Azu swallows down bile and nods. 

“Yes.” 

Azu picks up her axe and lets Skraak pull Hamid away. The party starts walking, and Azu tries to remember again what victory tastes like.


End file.
